This is in response to Rosemary Shinohara's recent article on cell phone towers.
I am one of the homeowners affected by the recent approval of a permit allowing the construction of another cellular tower. The construction of the tower will have adverse effects upon surrounding home values, is aesthetically unappealing, subjects residents to long-term and potentially harmful exposure to RF energy, and is an unnecessary addition to an area already saturated with communication towers and antennas. Currently, there are 182 cellular tower structures, 497 antenna locations, and three more cellular tower permits pending in a four-mile radius of the proposed tower.
The real disconcerting issue here is the streamlining and rubber-stamping of a supposedly public process by the Community Development Department. The CDD should be gathering feedback, comments and concerns from the very public that such an obtrusive project will affect.
The CDD's permitting process is deceptive and undemocratic. The municipality is approving unnecessary and potentially harmful projects with little or no regard to the residents affected by such development.
-- Jonathan Briggs
Anchorage